


these truths cannot be trusted

by astridianmayfly



Series: Ectober 2019 [1]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Ectober (Danny Phantom), Ectober 2019 (Danny Phantom), ectober, first danny phantom fic, other ectober stuff might be haphazard though, so hype to post again on ao3, this is much better than i've written in the past tho cause i took time to edit it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-25
Updated: 2019-10-25
Packaged: 2021-01-02 20:23:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21167339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astridianmayfly/pseuds/astridianmayfly
Summary: Maddie sees the reflection of its ectoplasm-green sea in his eyes. Maddie jerks her head in the portal’s direction--she must have forgotten to close it!-- and immediately becomes more confused. It is closed. It was always closed. For safety.A trick of the light. It must be.





	these truths cannot be trusted

**Author's Note:**

> Ectober Day #1-- Prompt: Shattered

__

It was when Danny nonchalantly waltzed into the lab that Maddie knew something was horribly wrong.

Maddie was fixing the broken Fenton Weaponry Activator, a device that she anticipated would be advantageous in future ghost attacks. Ever since the Pariah Dark incident had plunged Amity Park into the Ghost Zone, invasions became commonplace and increasingly powerful specters had begun to rear their ugly heads. It was important to have some sort of automatic protection against their town’s ghostly foes-- and that was why the Activator had been programmed to trigger a series of anti-ghost protocols against any ghost in a two-mile radius once it had been turned on. 

Danny’s eyes train on her fiddling hands, and his attention to the Activator is the first observation Maddie makes about him when she finally notices his presence beside her.

She almost jumps. He had descended the stairs so quietly. 

When he realizes his mom’s stare, Danny turns away sheepishly, hair glowing white under the wattage of the lab’s overhead lights. 

The Activator had been destroyed in a curious way--the insides all rearranged and the outside completely intact. Like someone had stuck their hand  _ through _ the machine. Maddie had assumed the act of vandalism to be the work of a meddling poltergeist, but with the suspicious way Danny had reacted just now…

_ It’s a slippery slope, _ her brain provides. The lines were from that one mom’s blog--her son was a recovering teenage alcoholic.  _ One thing to another.  _ She’d been reading more and more from these voices who raised such degenerate sons. (The Scientist demands a pattern. The Mother isn’t sure what she hopes to achieve from these readings.)

Maddie scolds herself.  _ He’s my son.  _

_ I know my son.  _

He avoided the lab like the plague ever since the accident.  _ The Accident.  _ Danny was too young to divide his life into Before and After. 

It wasn’t like anyone was  _ dead.  _

(It wasn’t like he died.) 

He’d been in the lab since that day, of course. But not voluntarily. Not when Maddie and Jack were there, tinkering, engineering, sciencing. Was he afraid he’d see something he would regret? Maddie always wondered if the hypnotic swirling of the portal shocked him back to that moment when he’d been, well, shocked.

Even now, he is stopped in the middle of the room, giving the portal a weary-eyed stare. Is he expecting something? Someone? Maddie sees the reflection of its ectoplasm-green sea in his eyes. Maddie jerks her head in the portal’s direction--she must have forgotten to close it!-- and immediately becomes more confused. It is closed. It was always closed. For safety. 

_ A trick of the light. _

Jack, situated on the other side of the lab and fiddling with a weapon, quirks an eyebrow in suspicion. He and Maddie make eye contact across the room.  _ What’s going on?  _ she asks him with her eyes. He shrugs, feigning indifference. When he turns back to his weapon, she can see him watching Danny through his safety goggles. 

Danny, who, at this moment, inhales, exhales. When he speaks, he is loud. Too loud.  _ He’s compensating,  _ Maddie realizes.  _ He’s scared. _

“Mom...Dad? Do you guys….uh, trust me?”

Danny averaged three detentions a week. He was frequently suspended. He racked up a catastrophic amount of tardies. He was never home. He missed curfew every night. She’d gone into his room every now and then to find him missing during the wee hours of the morning. He looked so tired, all the time. He was failing almost all of his classes. Random bruises appeared all over his body like he’d been bludgeoned.

Danny’s biggest fear was their family splitting up (not like that would ever happen.) He had separation anxiety as a child. He asked questions about Jack’s ghost inventions to entertain him. He cried when he found a dead snake in their yard. She’d once found him with a split lip after yelling at a bully who called Jazz a nerd. 

Again, she convinces herself. 

_ I know my son.  _

For now, that has to be enough.

Jack fills what had become an uncomfortable silence by booming, “Course, Dann-o! What gives?”

Danny turns to her. “Mom?” He is dead serious.

She hopes her smile doesn’t look too forced. Her words are genuine, and hopefully, that is enough. 

“Of course, Danny.” 

“Good to know. Can I please have the Fenton weapon disarmament activator…. thingy?”

Maddie is taken aback, but Jack responds without missing a beat. “Take a look, son! Your mother’s got it right there!” Maddie knows he’s thrilled to see Danny showing interest in their science. Maddie isn’t sure that Danny’s questions are from a place of curiosity. 

Danny trains his eyes on the device in Maddie’s possession. Instinctively, she put her hands around their invention. 

“Please.”

She relents, and the Activator is in Danny’s hands. He looks at it for a second. He looks up. 

She’s not dreaming when she sees the green mass in his gaze again, and she knows it for certain. Jack remains oblivious to the ghost that has obviously possessed her son. She moves for the Ecto-Weapon on her jumpsuit belt when--

He inhales.

“Mom, Dad…. I’m Danny Phantom.”

Before Maddie has time to process this admission, Danny’s hand falls. 

All that remains of the activator lay shattered on the floor in mocking bits and pieces.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm really thrilled to be posting fics again. I actually liked this. Uneventful but (hopefully) poignant.


End file.
